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Save your schools? Save our political skins

The big news in my part of the world is our council’s proposals to shut or merge several local primary schools. The council’s activities have been despicable throughout – they’ve followed a divide and conquer strategy, pitting schools against each other and causing astonishing bad feeling in the local area – and certain councillors are even worse: even though the council meeting isn’t until next week, they have announced that one school definitely won’t be affected.

That’s great news for the parents, of course, but the whole thing stinks: of the 36 schools potentially affected here, just one has received the support of the local Lib Dem MP: the one we’re talking about. By a fascinating coincidence the councillors who’ve jumped the gun are Lib Dems, and the school is at the centre of an area whose votes the Lib Dems need.

As The Herald put it:

It is believed the unpopularity of the party in the country at large, combined with the council’s school proposals, was a threat to local LibDem MP Jo Swinson

It’s been repeatedly said that 95% of parents are against the closure or merger of this school, but you get the same pattern across the district: there are dozens of schools here, but smaller ones don’t have the potential to fuck up Jo Swinson’s glittering parliamentary career if they get shut down.